What Marching Band is to Me
by Tamayo2
Summary: A long explanation of all the different things that high school competition marching band has been to me, and what it may be to others.


well, i'm not much of a writer, or anything else for that matter, but after seeing some of the stories on this marching band category on fanfiction.net, i've decided to write something about why marching band is so important to me, and then maybe you too will see why it's worth the sweat, blood and tears.  
  
Marching band is waking up at 8 in the morning during the summer for 1 or 2 weeks, and not going home until five, if you're lucky. Marching band is also trying to pass all your memory tests and failing half of them, only for them to be forgotten once school starts. Marching band is spending more time at school and in the parking lot of your school than you do at home. Marching band is being able to talk to your other band friends about something that is going on in band, in front of your non-marching band friends and laughing at them when they get annoyed by it. Marching band is sitting on some small islands of half-dead grass with small trees in a huge parking lot during a water break and not caring that you're getting dirt on your behind. Marching band is avoiding all trash cans outside for fear of getting stung by the bees that always swarm around then. Marching band is also getting stung by a bee while you're on the pavement and not stopping to take care of it.  
  
Marching band is being able to showcase every bruise you've gotten in a run-in with a guard member who didn't know where she was swinging her flag till it was too late. Marching band is alternating different types of spaghetti strap tank tops in an effort to avoid tanlines. Marching band is hating the heat when it's hot because it rises from the pavement and cooks the bottom of your tennis shoes. Marching band is also hating the cold when it's cold because your lips freeze to your mouthpiece. Marching band is laughing at the mellophones on "Yellow Mello Day." Marching band is doing your summer reading during your dinner break because you haven't had time to do it for the last month. Marching band is holding the whole band up while you tie your shoe. Marching band is sweeping all the gravel from a parking lot the size of a football field at the beginning of the summer so that you have a nice surface to paint chart numbers on. Marching band is the now nonexistent Campbell Parties after every football game which every band member was invited to. Marching band is three hour long busrides with the windows cracked and your jumpsuit on. Marching band is also putting every boy's hair in the back of the bus into tiny little pigtails that encompass their whole head, and then laughing at them when they feel the pain of putting on their helmets over it, and then laughing again when they take all the little pigtails out and their hair is standing on end, literally. Marching band is those little pep talks that the section leaders give to their sections before every competition. Marching band is adjusting each others' helmet and plume so that they are all perfectly straight and level on your head.  
  
Marching band is crying when it is all over. Marching band is bleeding when you get knocked over by an errant tenor sax player. Marching band is also sweating so much that it's useless to even use deodorant anymore. Marching band is sleeping in the auditorium lobby at 2 in the morning while you wait for your parents to pick you up. Marching band is being able to leave your stuff in any undesignated place where you know there will only be band members congregating, and knowing that no one will touch it and certainly not steal it. Marching band is crowding into the band locker room after every practice and laughing when someone drops their case on you because their locker is above yours, which is on the bottom row. Marching band is loving the seniors while you're a freshman and then doing your absolute best to be just like they were by the time you're a senior yourself. Marching band is feeling sick to your stomach and you keep going without telling anyone. Marching band is friends. Marching band is seeing who can do their hair the wackiest, and then laughing when everyone forgot it was wacky hair day in the first place. Marching band is hating and yet loving the uniform. Marching band is checking yourself in your friends' mirrors which happen to be on the front of that uniform. Marching band is feeling like you're really part of something when you're in uniform. Marching band is getting headaches from having your hair squished up against your skull in your helmet. Marching band is the red mark across your forehead once you take off that helmet. Marching band is looking like crap underneath the uniform, but looking like a million bucks on the outside.  
  
Marching band is being there at least 15 minutes ahead of the time that practice starts which is really 5 minutes before the actual written time. Marching band is carrying around a chartbook and running laps if you forgot it. Marching band is the directors joking with you one minute, and lecturing you on how bad you just did the next. Marching band is smirking when certain idiots drive by in their cars screaming obscenities at you while you are on the parking lot, knowing that they probably will end up going to IU, the biggest party school in the country, and that they have no real future ahead of them. Marching band is holding your instrument till your arms go numb, and blaming the flutes for twitching all the time because their instrument supposedly weighs nothing. Marching band is having the strength to move on when you do badly at a competition. Marching band is loving the guard, even though they are violent and the guns they carry are just as dangerous as real ones, even though they have no ammunition in them. Marching band is having section parties and shipping everyone off to Steak and Shake at 10:00 at night. Marching band is being told to stop talking.   
  
Marching band is huge trips to Pasadena, California to be in the Parade of Roses on the first of the year. Marching band is sharing a hotel room with three other people, with only one shower and with only a window of an hour and a half each day to use that shower. Marching band is wearing the wool uniform to the first football game when it's 80 degrees out. Marching band is raising your chin higher and marching even more proudly than usual just to show off other bands at state finals. Marching band is not caring about the football game, but making sure you outplay the other team's band. Marching band is drinking a gallon of water every day. Marching band is the smell of sunscreen that won't come off even after a shower. Marching band is spray painting numbers not just on the parking lot, but on your chest, shoes, and anywhere else that's available. Marching band is also looking down at last year's numbers, and the numbers from the year before that, and thinking about how many people in the last 15 years have marched that parking lot. Marching band is feeling bad when you paint a new number on top of an old one. Marching band is being able to recognize one of your numbers from last year. Marching band is yelling at the tubas because they never do anything right. Marching band is, "BAND TEN HUT-" and then snapping to attention. Marching band is fondly loving the underclassmen because they remind you of yourself at that age. Marching band is more dramatic than drama club. Marching band is a controversy that never seems to end. Marching band is the drum majors' chance to shine. Marching band is something that no one ever seems to appreciate, but is just as hard as football, probably more so. Marching band is the outfield of a baseball diamond. Marching band is dressing center and covering down. Marching band is laying in the grass of the outfield and wondering who else has laid in that exact same spot before you. Marching band is wondering why it looks like the north wall of the school is crying because there's little white drips coming from the cracks in the bricks, but there is no paint on it at all. Marching band is wondering how the guard can do all those strange bends. Marching band is taking out the podiums and sound cart at the beginning of practice, and dragging them back inside along with everything else at the end of it. Marching band is getting laughed at and not caring. Marching band is ridiculing a stupid student who left their car in the parking lot after school and watching the directors take their number and report it to the administration, getting their parking pass revoked. Marching band is playing the same music over and over again for months on end, and loving it in the beginning, hating it in the middle, and just doing it without thinking at the end. Marching band is male college kids who help out the band during the summer and take off their shirts, except they almost always have gross looking chests. Marching band is knowing those college kids because they graduated last year. Marching band is crying at the banquet because you realize that it's all over now. Marching band is laughing at the loser who drove into the parking lot while you were practicing in the summer, only to have everyone block all the exits once he's in and trapping him inside the parking lot.  
  
Marching band is doing the annual carwash to raise money and having fun doing it with your friends. Marching band is standing at the corner waving signs and yelling at cars during the aforementioned carwash. Marching band is hating it while you do it, but loving it when it's over. Marching band is an extracurricular which only lasts two months of the school year, but gives you an excuse not to do any other extracurricular activities during the rest of the year. Marching band is half of your wardrobe. Marching band is practicing in the rain till it starts to get too heavy, then letting the woodwinds run and put their instruments in their cases before returning to practice. Marching band is trying to get all the money and forms in on time and never quite making it. Marching band is working on the same music for months at a time. Marching band is feeling bad for the seniors at the end of it. Marching band is making new friends. Marching band is sitting around during dinner break and relaxing in the air conditioning. Marching band is having impromptu cookouts out of peoples' trunks in the parking lot. Marching band is being told to watch the drum majors. Marching band is checking the clock every five minutes wanting practice to be over. Marching band is being cold at first, but then being very very hot afterwards. Marching band is stretching with Mr. Poehner's music in the background. Marching band is doing horn moves and loving it once you get the hang of it. Marching band is eating pizza in the cafeteria before a performance. Marching band is having a set place in the block for the whole season and feeling like for once, you belong somewhere. Marching band is the shoulder massages and backrubs we give each other to loosen up. Marching band is feeling the springy astroturf during state finals in the RCA Dome in Indy, and then feeling it again a month later when your football team makes it to state finals too. Marching band is that scary 15 minutes at the end of regionals when you hope that they call your name to go to state. Marching band is wonderful when they call your name. Marching band is awful when they don't. Marching band is traditions.  
  
Marching band is listening to the seniors tell you to have fun during a performance, but really all you end up thinking about during the whole thing is why peanut butter is so sticky if it's butter. Marching band is trying to ignore the football games as much as possible. Marching band is playing the national anthem and not doing it very well. Marching band is hearing the doctor beat in your sleep. Marching band is having fun with the people around you in the drill. Marching band is running back to your spot five or six times before moving on. Marching band is laughing. Marching band is marking time. Marching band is being as graceful as possible while trying to act like a tin soldier. Marching band is getting in huge rivalries with neighboring high school bands and loving it when you beat them, yet meeting one of them online and realizing that they are people too. Marching band is doing a show facing the sun so you can hardly see anything without going half blind. Marching band is playing the last note of your last show in the last season that you are in marching band, and doing a horn pop to the press box and putting your whole heart into making it the best thing the judges have ever heard. Marching band is recalling fond memories and then telling them to the underclassmen so they can pass them when they are upperclassmen. Marching band is buying the extremely expensive cotton candy in the RCA Dome and not caring that it's overpriced, because it's the RCA Dome and everyone has to eat cotton candy there, it's a law.  
  
Marching band is your whole life for about 12 to 15 months total after the four years are over. Marching band is not having very much fun until after it's over and you realize that you're missing it dearly and so you urge your little brothers and sisters to do it just so you can come back and watch their shows. Marching band is a select group of students from a high school that you can't possibly go wrong with, and it this group of students that I consider myself proud to be a part of.  
  
Marching band isn't just high school, though, it's life. Even when you haven't done it for years on end you'll always be able to snap to perfect attention and hold it. And your posture will be greatly improved for the rest of your life because of it. Marching band is a nightmare and a dream all wrapped up into real life. And marching band is a passion that brings the best and worst out of people. But marching band is something that will always be cherished forever, no matter where you go, you will always have those memories to look back on.  
  
That is what marching band is all about. 


End file.
